


Things Left Behind

by Delphi



Category: Harry Potter - Rowling
Genre: Drama, Gen, M/M, POV Outsider
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-06-08
Updated: 2009-06-08
Packaged: 2017-10-04 23:38:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/35325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Delphi/pseuds/Delphi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prof. Longbottom deals with Argus Filch's possessions after the caretaker passes away.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Things Left Behind

**Author's Note:**

  * For [toft_froggy (Toft)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Toft/gifts).



Mr. Filch passed away on a Saturday, two weeks before Christmas. It was a house-elf who found him, thankfully, but it was Neville who was charged with packing up his things—occupying as he did the position of least seniority at which the buck inevitably skidded to a stop.

The first thing he did was move Mrs. Dashwood to his own rooms, setting her up with her dishes and a litter box, and sitting with her a while until she stopped mewing so piteously. Then he began his excavation of the cramped little quarters on the second floor. He began with two piles: school property and personal effects. Shortly after that, he had to make a third pile consisting of personal effects that Mr. Filch's elderly half-sister in Kent would probably faint to see, which would best be disposed of.

It was nearly the end of the day when he found the shoebox under the bed. Having properly braced himself for what Mr. Filch would bother to hide when a year's subscription of _Bouncy_ was sitting out in the open, he blinked in surprise to find a stack of academic journals. _Potions Monthly. The Journal of Theoretical Magic. The Merlin College Review._ He frowned, picking up an issue and flipping through. A name in the table of contents stood out. He checked in the next one, and the next. "The Asphodel Effect" by Severus Snape, Hogwarts. "On Magically Inert Storage Vessels." "Copper Cauldrons: A geomantic approach."

He'd had no idea that Professor Snape had ever published.

Underneath the journals was a collection of photographs. Professor Snape as a sixth- or seventh-year student, fidgeting uncomfortably at what looked like one of those Slug Club parties. Professor Snape in his teaching robes, striding down the corridor outside the Great Hall. Professor Snape glowering in the library, and reading in the staff lounge, and brewing in the dungeons. Professor Snape sleeping, an ugly brown quilt pulled halfway over his bare back.

Neville glanced over to the bed. Oh.

In the photograph, Professor Snape cracked open one eye and made a rude gesture.

He hurriedly replaced the photographs in the box and sat back on his heels, mildly stunned. He touched the neatly clipped obituary. Then he got on with his work.

When he was done, he carted what belonged to the school to the caretaker's office, and he parcelled up the papers and letters for the sister with a note of condolence. He put all the dirty magazines on the fire—well, very nearly all of them—and then, after some thought, he hurried to Graves and Diggory's funeral home and managed to leave the shoebox with Mrs. Graves before she closed up for the night. He thought...well, he thought Mr. Filch might like to have that with him.

He kept behind one photograph: the one of Professor Snape in the library with quill in hand and a pile of books beside him. He'd never sat for a portrait, after all.

The photograph remained in Neville's desk drawer for a fortnight. There was the funeral to prepare for and then chats to be had with his students about the loss. Interviews for a replacement caretaker, and mid-semester exams, and winter plantings. It was the holiday before he got around to framing the photograph. With Professor Vector's blessing, he put it up in the Slytherin common room, just above and left of the mantel.

He stepped back to judge whether he'd hung it properly, and then he paused. Funny, that. None of the other staff had owned up to taking the picture, and so he'd assumed it to be Mr. Filch's work—but there was a figure in the background he hadn't noticed before, sweeping the library floor as Professor Snape returned to his reading.

Neville carefully straightened the frame and gave them a little wave. Then he went upstairs to feed Mrs. Dashwood.


End file.
